To hedge against future retirement costs, you can consider to invest with some home country bias e.g. in local currency and with local economy exposure.
The SMI is dominated by a few big cap international companies. Is there a simple way to invest in a broader base of Swiss domestically focussed companies?
Unless there is and you opt for a (probably relatively expensive) mutual fund:
Buy individual stocks - or hedge your currency exposure elsewhere.
How about an ETF on the SLI (30 biggest CH companies, cap of 9% for the 4 biggest companies and cap of 4.5% for the rest)?
Or SMI Mid (SMIM). It consists of the 30 largest mid-cap stocks that are not included in the SMI.
I should have gone with this one.
Instead, I mix 2/3 SPI and 1/3 SMIM.
Do any of these indexes protect a Swiss investor from FX?
Novartis website states their operating expenditure in Swiss francs is significantly higher than their revenues in Swiss francs. Owning their shares does not seem to protect against depreciation of EUR or USD vs. CHF. In fact the opposite
I am not sure if SMIM is significantly better
Switzerland is a small “island” without any natural resources. There’s a reason a lot of companies expand beyond Switzerland’s borders.
I’d argue that even companies only operating in Switzerland are influenced by how the CHF does. If the multinational Swiss companies suffer, the Swiss economy as a whole suffers.
Value preserving by investing in CHF has been on my mind recently. My idea was to find an ETF that is composed of Swiss companies having their main revenue in CHF and little exposure to foreign markets. I couldn’t find one, though.
So I have taken a quick look at the companies available on the SWX.
To make a long story short, you can do your own portfolio of Swiss stocks if you focus on the following sectors:
If you check the Shares on the BX (Bern Exchange), you can find a few more:
Most of those are boring but profitable businesses that pay nice dividends while having a low potential capital gain (my guess).
Diversification is poor, as banking, insurance and real estate are sensitive to interest rates.
I suppose this could be a part of a pensioner’s portfolio or of a more conservative investment approach, but I don’t think it’s a great idea if you’re in the accumulation phase. Unfortunately, I am not able to do a historical analyisis to see if I’m right.
I was just looking into this as well as a means to make my home bias more Swiss as most of the SMI/SPI revenue is foreign. And I’ve come to the same conclusion that direct investment in individual stocks is the only option. I couldn’t even find a mutual fund focused on such local Swiss companies. That said, Inyova does offer the theme “Swiss champions”.
Some Swiss revenue numbers from those in the top 50 of the SPI that have significant Swiss revenue:
No warranties, use this list at your own risk 
I’m considering investing in some of these as partial replacement for my current SPI Mid allocation. That’s just 5% of my portfolio, though, so it is unlikely to make a big difference either way.
Understood. And thanks for reminding me of Swisscom, Galenica, ZRH Airport and Swiss Life. I complete forgot about those.